64 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
are raised by half dollars, and thereafter by dollars. The actual 
breaking points between the quarter, half, and dollar bids vary in 
different districts and markets. Each market establishes its own rules 
as to bids and rate of selling. The existence of rules as to bids pro- 
motes rapid sales, since a very slight sign such as a quick glance, a 
wink, etc., may be interpreted as a bid. The auctioneer accepts such 
a signal as a bid and runs the price up at once. 
In small markets of two or three warehouses only one set of buyers 
is needed. The same buyers proceed from one floor to the next, and 
the warehouses rotate from day to day in having the first sale. Usually 
signs are hung out, ‘‘first sale,’ or ‘‘second sale.’’ In larger markets, 
two or more sets of buyers operate simultaneously, and it is not un- 
common for two sales to be in progress on the same floor. 
AMA 1462 
FigurE 32.—Typical scene of tobacco auction sale. The auctioneer heads the 
line on the right. Next in line is the sales starter who makes the opening bid. 
The group also includes other necessary warehouse employees and the tobacco 
buyers. Most of the latter are in the line on the left. 
The machinery of a tobacco market is well organized for rapid 
handling of the tobacco and quick payment to the growers. During 
rush times the wagons or trucks of farmers form long lines of approach 
to the warehouses, and are unloaded from long before daylight until 
late at night. In order to accommodate the stream of deliveries, 
tobacco must be removed from the floor as rapidly as sold to make 
way for new deliveries. No sooner is a sale under way, therefore, 
than hurrying truckers move the tobacco to side doors where it is 
loaded on trucks for delivery to redriers or to the pack houses of the 
different companies. Lots which have been bought in by the “‘house,”’ 
or the sale of which has been rejected by the grower, are not removed. 
Such lots are usually ‘dressed up’? and put back in line for resale. 
